


old scars // fresh wounds

by nightmares (shadow_born)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Grief, Recovery, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Season 2 spoilers, Welcome to my shitshow, back to the main tags:, god bless that chefs kiss that is my own trauma, i have no idea what i'm doing but my brain wanted this written, thats free real estate here, the sparrow academy basically, will i orient express this bitch? maybe so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26288362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_born/pseuds/nightmares
Summary: April 2nd, 2019, the day worlds collided.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	old scars // fresh wounds

“Dad, who the hell are these assholes?” 

Ben’s voice echoes through the empty hallways, no doubt thanks to Guillaume's powers. The edge of hostility in his tone is enough to jolt me into action. 

_Was someone breaking in?_

What kind of idiot would try and break in here? This is the Sparrow Academy, for fuck’s sake. Who doesn’t know that? 

I’m out of bed in an instant, feet light on the tiled floors from years of practice, picking up one of Leo’s stray bats as I rush past his room. The glow of my family, dampened through the many walls of the labyrinth of our home, only brightens as I get closer to the lounge. 

All I hear is the sibilant hiss of swear word as a hand grabs my bat and yanks me towards their body. There’s so much fucking energy in here, I can barely focus.

“So glad you could make it, Iz,” I hear Guillaume say as he pries the baseball bat out of my hands. “Couldn’t have showered, could you?” 

I take a quick glance down. I’m still covered in blood from last night’s mission. Jesus fucking Christ, I’m never gonna hear the end of this one. 

“These are nobody, One,” Dad says, his voice curdling like sour milk. 

My powers, humming carefully through my fingers just want to suck the energy out of this room just to quiet it down, glow slightly. I’m half inclined to agree with them, for once. 

“Take your siblings and begin the debrief.” Dad continues, disdain dripping from his tongue, his gaze fixed on me. “And get your sister something to eat.” 

Ben turns, his eyes drawn to me. “Yes, Dad.” 

Well. _Could’ve_ been worse. We watch as he nods for us to follow him downstairs to the kitchen. I can just about hear Matilda and Sana’s grumbling about me not getting properly scolded, but I’m sure it’ll come later. When the weird group of goths are out of our living room. 

Guill and Leo all-but frogmarch me to the kitchen, and I’m almost grateful when they drop me in a chair. Leo heads over to the first aid cupboard and grabs me some painkillers while Guill gets me a glass of water. 

“Alright,” Ben begins, tossing a manila folder down on the table. “Where did we fuck up yesterday?” 

“You mean, where did Six fuck up?” Else remarks, never looking up from her nails. 

She has the heat and temperamental nature to match her powers, sliding her in at Number Two. 

I’d spent many training sessions at her mercy, but what good were healing powers against a wall of flame? 

“I think you mean, where did Three fuck up, thank you.” I counter, a venomous hiss that Leo and Guill knew was only a side effect of one of my many headaches. 

Sana grimaces. She knows I’m right. If she hadn’t fucked up on cloaking Leo during his shifting, I never would’ve had to heal either of them. 

“Oh, shut up, the lot of you! I can’t hear what they’re saying!” Guillaume hisses from the doorway. 

“Oh, for God’s sake, Guill,” Felix remarks as his stomach rumbles. “You gonna hurry up over there, Leo?” 

“Hey, make your own damn food,” Leo mutters, a third arm sprouting out of his back to smack Felix round the head. 

“Ow!” 

“Stop it, you two,” Ben says, the slightest hint of a tentacle coming up above the table. 

“Hey, no tentacles at the table, Ben!” Matilda snips back. 

“Shhhiiiit!” Guill says as he rushes to sit beside me. “Mom’s coming.” 

As if on cue, Mom appears around the corner, carrying a tray of cookies. 

“There you all are! I thought you could do with a treat after yesterday’s mission!” 

Ben sighs, leaning back into his chair. I don’t need Felix’s telepathy to know that he's annoyed, he’s always been remarkably easy to read. 

“Thank you, Mom,” Sana says as she accepts a biscuit. 

“Not a problem, dearest!” Her blank gaze turns on me. “You should eat up, Isabella. Your father told me all about the mission.” 

The underlying jab is enough for me to swipe up a biscuit. It doesn’t take much to be the family disappointment, just pass out every time you’re needed on a mission. 

“And don’t forget to put your uniform in the laundry basket, sweetheart.” She says, her voice saccharine sweet as she turns to go and continue the day-to-day housekeeping we didn’t get tasked with. “We wouldn’t want all that blood of yours to stain!” 

I bite back the remark that it’s not actually my blood. I’m simultaenously worth too much and too little to actually be allowed on the front lines when we go out. After Dad had theorised that my powers would prioritise healing me before they let me help anyone else, I was forbidden from doing the dirty work. 

“Actually, are we done here?” Felix asks, moving his feet from the edge of the table. “I fancy doughnuts.”

Ben sighs and takes us in. I probably look the worst, caked in dried blood and in my torn uniform from last night, but he tries not to settle his eyes on me for too long. He dismisses us with a nod and quickly slips out of the kitchen. 

Everyone but Guillaume and Leo are quick to follow. 

“You gonna tell us who those people were, Guill?” Leo asks as I lean back and close my eyes, waiting for the painkillers to kick in. 

“They didn’t mention. There was just a lot of yelling -” Leo scoffs. We all heard that. “-and something about Dad being a piece of shit.” 

Leo’s left arm extends to inhuman lengths to shove the plate of food in front of me. “Eat up, Iz.” 

“Thanks.” I mutter, shoving my fork into half of a hash brown. The room is slightly more bearable without all of my fucking siblings in here. 

“Don’t forget to shower, Iz.” Leo says before dropping the pan he was using in the sink to soak. 

Guill and I sit in silence, although nothing is ever silent for him. The curse-slash-blessing of super hearing. 

“For fuck’s sake,” he mutters after a while, standing up from his perch on the side to crack open one of the windows. “These guys have been going at it since we left them and Dad.” 

“Look, I’m not saying we don’t exist, I’m saying, somehow, we made a reality where the Umbrella Academy doesn’t exist.” A voice carries through the opened window. From the table, I can only properly see their ankles, but my powers fill in the rest. The energy of six people buzzes into my vision. _Fucksake_. 

“A reality where Dad knew what we were - what he did to us - and then didn’t adopt us?” Another voice said. “Classic Dad!” 

What the fuck did they mean? A different reality? My stomach throbs and the bubbly tang of nausea is back. 

“Did I puke yesterday?” I ask Guill as I stand, my chair scraping against the wooden floor. 

“No. Why, you feeling it coming on?” He replies, eyeing up my food. 

“Kinda. If you want my food, take it. I don’t think I can stomach any more.” 

“You always were my favourite,” Guill says, a wicked grin exposing his teeth. 

I stand and leave the kitchen, desperate to get away from the glow of the strangers and their buzzing. Dad had put my bedroom on the other side of the house when my powers started emerging. Even Sir Reginald Hargreeves wasn’t immune to the wailing of an exhausted four year old. 

I take a moment to assess how bad I look in the mirror beside my door. 

Fuck. I look like I took a knife to a gunfight. A bloody handprint stains my left cheek, dirt and blood and God-knows-what-else is caked into my hair. My uniform is ripped at the collar, the tie is entirely missing and there’s so much dried blood I can’t place. Did Sana get shot or stabbed? I can’t entirely remember that either. 

The promised warmth of a shower entices me to shed my ‘uniform’. I don’t think any of Grace’s miracles can fix that mess, but I put them in my laundry bag all the same. I pull a set of clean pyjamas out of my drawers and I grab my robe before heading to the bathroom. 

One of the many perks of living on the side of the house nobody used - a bathroom, all to myself. Nobody to steal my shampoo or use my loofah. 

Humming to myself, I enter my bathroom. Had Grace opened the window while we were out? It sure is cold in here. Locking the door behind me, I place my clean clothes on the closed toilet seat and wrangle the window down. I turn to start my shower and finally get all this blood off me. 

But there’s already someone laying in the tub. 

**Author's Note:**

> edit on 17/09 for a few inaccuracies in my own damn writing & bc i learnt more about the bts aspect of the sparrows. x


End file.
